I started off using my mac mini as a desktop, cause it was my first mac. Then I got a macbook for university, so my mac mini was still used as a desktop for a while then i set it up with my sdtv and played my media files on it. Then i got fed up with the quality so i put xbmc on my xbox and ran my mac mini headless as file server, and show getter, and it's been like that since. Just sitting on a metal rack with a couple of external's hooked up to it. I aslo use toast on it, so i keep my dvi to vga adapter hooked uo to it cause toast is picky and want's a monitor hooked up on it to use it._________________

We use both the minis in our house as desktops; both backed up on a Time Capsule. We don't have a big collection of photos, music or videos that would require a server. In fact, the 320gb internal drive on my home office mini isn't even close to being half-full, despite all the virtual machines I have stored on it._________________Mini 1 (2012): 2.3 ghz Core i7; 10 gb RAM, Corsair 240gb SSD, 500 gb Seagate XT
Mini 2 (2009): 2.26 ghz Core 2 duo, 8 gb RAM, 500 gb Seagate used as HTPC
Also a 13" MacBook Air, 21.5" i5 iMac & 11.6" Acer 1810TZ running Ubuntu, openSUSE & Crunchbang

p.s. I use an app called MediaLink to stream content from the mini to the PS3.

Ditto!

Our two Mac minis are firmly planted on the desktop. That said, I'm moving the Intel Mac mini into a little home recording studio. I would use my MacBook Pro for this, but I'm afraid my nephew and his friends will destroy or spill something on it. Plus, I don't want them seeing the other sites I visit. Oh, I kid, I kid!

p.s. I use an app called MediaLink to stream content from the mini to the PS3.

Ditto!

Our two Mac minis are firmly planted on the desktop. That said, I'm moving the Intel Mac mini into a little home recording studio. I would use my MacBook Pro for this, but I'm afraid my nephew and his friends will destroy or spill something on it. Plus, I don't want them seeing the other sites I visit. Oh I kid, I kid, I kid.

I've been quite happy with MediaLink. My PS3 wouldn't get used for more than a Blu-ray player without it. My PS3 took on a whole new life with this app. Aside from a few formats it seems to handle everything I throw at it with ease. The up scaling is great. Crappy content looks great on my 1080P screen. I haven't done a test (same content via mini vs. PS3) but I'm inclined to think that the PS3 would kick the minis butt when it comes to outputting video. The up scaling seems to work quite well.

I had been using Mac laptops as main desk machines from 2000 through Nov 2008 when I bought the Mini.

However, while I'm waiting to find a solution for multiple monitors on the Mini, I'm running it as the 'server' with a laptop 'slave' either side of it. All thee machines are networked and run seamlessly together from one keyboard and mouse through the free Teleport software. teleoprt allows dragging of files from one machine to another, and synchronises the clipboard. One has the impression of using just one machine.

I use the Mini for everything.
I'm not interested in watching TV on it or using it as any kind of media server, or playing games. I use it for my work that mainly consists of business communication, web design, architecture, some software development for linguistics, and of course writing. My background music while I work comes from iTunes on the laptop on the left; the laptop on the right serves mainly as the office fax machine, for news, and any apps that have not (yet) been ported to OSX.

This set up also provides a streamlined solution for checking websites quickly in different browsers on different configurations. This is the most time consuming and most boring of all web work - there are just too many browsers around these days.

It has an elgato tuner to record shows, runs a MagicJack, gets used as a desktop, runs a Linux and a few Windows Virtual machines, runs games, and probably a whole lot more. I have a Windows based media center PC, so it transfers the recorded shows into that or the home server for storage.